CALAMBA CITY ? The of National Hero Jose Rizal has been getting pained attention since it was painted green last month.

In text messages, e-mails and phone calls, residents based in the city, other provinces and abroad have expressed ?shock? and ?horror? over the new color of the bahay na bato.

?We don?t like it,? declared Linda Lazaro, a school teacher in her 70s and a member of the Rizal Day committee for the past 15 years.

?The house symbolizes Rizal and [the paint job] is an insult to his memory,? she said.

The house, now a shrine, was reconstructed in the 1950s using the 25-centavo contributions of students in a number of schools. It has stood for decades in dirty gray.

The National Historical Institute (NHI) had the house painted in a light shade of green. The interiors were painted yellow and the ceiling blue.

?Even the well in front of the house was painted green,? lamented Lazaro, who claims to be a member of the clan through the wife of Rizal?s brother Paciano.

?Flimsy? reason

In his column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on June 3, NHI Chair Ambeth Ocampo explained that the reason for painting Rizal?s house green was to ?highlight, and inform visitors of, the meaning of his surname.?

The surname Rizal is rooted in the Spanish word ?ricial,? which means a green field ready for harvest, Ocampo said.

But a resident of Calamba, who preferred not to be named, said: ?It does not follow that your house should be painted according to the meaning of your surname.?